ACA ad: Let's hope he's as easy to get as this birth control.'

A new round of advertisements unveiled by supporters of Colorado’s health insurance exchange has ignited controversy that rippled through social media Tuesday and launched debate over their portrayal of women.

In one of the most discussed “Got insurance?” ads, produced by the liberal ProgressNow Colorado and the Colorado Consumer Health Initiative, a young woman holds a packet of birth-control pills and stands next to a young man, his hand wrapped around her waist.

So what’s she thinking?

“OMG, he’s hot! Let’s hope he’s as easy to get as this birth control. My health insurance covers the pill, which means all I have to worry about is getting him between the covers,” read the words in the risqué advertisement.

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While the groups say the aim is to encourage young people to enroll in the state’s new health insurance exchange — a pillar to President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act — some have said it belittles women. It also adds to the partisan back-and-forth over the new health care law.

The enrollment of young adults is pivotal to the new law because, say White House officials, they tend to have low anticipated medical costs and can keep insurance premiums lower.

Other advertisements in the campaign, which began in October, feature young people doing keg stands and downing shots from a “shot ski.”

“The whole intention of these ads is to raise awareness, and that’s what we’re doing. It’s great that more and more people are talking about it,” said Runyon-Harms, who notes the ads only appear on social media and will not, for example, be displayed on billboards or buses.

A spokesman for Connect for Health Colorado, the state-run health care exchange, which is not associated with the ad campaign, declined to comment.

One of the many advertisements created by Progress Now Colorado in support of the Affordable Care Act. (

“This ad campaign is desperately trying to distract from the fact that exchange sign-ups have essentially ground to a halt. While nearly a quarter of a million Coloradans have had their plans canceled, ProgressNow Colorado and Colorado Consumer Health Initiative are demeaning and belittling women with shallow sexual caricatures and making light of serious women’s health issues,” Maher, executive director of the conservative Compass Colorado, said in a statement.

An initial glance at the advertisements led Harsha Gangadharbatla, an associate professor of advertising at the University of Colorado at Boulder, to believe it was a joke toward Obamacare created by Republicans.

“I think it’s a strategic mistake,” Gangadharbatla said. “Consumers could see it as a joke, making it appear not to be a serious issue. And the issue of health care is clearly a serious issue in the United States. There’s already so many negative headlines and problematic issues out there with rollout of Obamacare, so why add fuel with ads like these, if the true intent is to enroll more young people.”

Gangadharbatla said the ads could also be viewed as stereotypical of millennials.

“Doing keg stands and shots makes it seem like that is the typical life of a young professional, which can be stretch,” Gangadharbatla said.

As for the promiscuous ads featuring birth-control, Runyon-Harms said, “People get upset when you portray women as independent.”

“We think this ad is really about healthy relationships and that people are taking control of their lives with health care,” she said.